Home entertainment. CD-ROM review.

Nostaglic Ride

`Lionel' Guides Just The Ticket For Train Fans

May 29, 1997|By Donald Liebenson. Special to the Tribune.

Tom McComas has a one-track mind. For more than two decades, he has been the engine pulling Michigan-based TM Books and Video, the premier producer and distributor of books, videos and price guides for Lionel model train collectors and enthusiasts.

"Lionel: A Collector's Guide and History," TM's first CD-ROM release, combines elements of all three to chronicle the company's postwar era, spanning the years 1945-1969.

This was, McComas said, the golden age of toy trains -- before fascination with airline travel and the advent of more modern amusements such as slot cars that were, in part, responsible for derailing the hobby.

"Lionel was the largest toy company in the world," he said. "Toy trains were like computer games today. They were No. 1 on Christmas lists."

Designed by Prairie Multimedia in West Chicago, "Postwar Era" comprises the text of the second volume of TM's "Lionel Collector's Guide and History," written by McComas and James Tuohy, the 1997 "TM Price and Rarity Guide" and clips from the company's video productions.

The historical overview of Lionel's postwar era (accessed through the Main Station screen) quotes Arthur Raphael, a key player in the company's development, as stating that "a boy still interested in trains at the age of 14 is likely to be a Lionel customer for life."

But beyond this obvious target audience of veteran and new collectors, this CD-ROM is for everyone who, in the words of songwriter Paul Simon, loves the sound of a train in the distance.

For former toy train owners especially, clicking through the more than 1,300 photographs of classic Lionel trains, accessories, catalog covers and other promotional material is a nostalgic ride. There's the Aquarium Car with its painted fish circling past the windows. There's the Refrigerator Car dispensing milk cans.

And there's one of Lionel's most popular trains of all time, the red and silver Santa Fe F-3 Diesel engine, a replica of the classic train of the era, the Santa Fe Superchief that went from Los Angeles to Chicago.

Hopping aboard any of these locomotives is easy.

From the Train Yard screen, choose from general categories such as Boxcars, Cabooses, Diesels, Electrics, Passenger cars, Steamers and Accessories.

One can scroll chronologically through each catalog item. Textual descriptions include the year that the train was introduced, the year it was retired, model variations and present market value.

One of the most valuable trains is the scarce Jersey Central FM Diesel, which is worth up to $4,000 in "mint boxed condition" (Upgraded price guide information will be made available on floppy disk).

Another feature of the "Postwar" disc is the "TRAINetwork," a train collector's resource guide organized by region and that includes information on area train and hobby retailers, train museums and collectors organizations.

A Conductor icon is your ticket to the Tours feature that includes videos of a replica of the classic 1949 Lionel Showroom layout, illuminated model trains running in the dark, and "Train Wrecks," in which toy trains malfunction or jump the tracks (only here do we come perilously close to the "get a life" syndrome).

"Lionel: A Collector's Guide and History" is a labor of love, so one can forgive the fuzzy, low resolution of the videos or the monotonous looping of Pat Metheny's "Last Train Home." With all the great train songs, one hopes for more musical variety on future disks.

TM will distribute a "Modern Era" CD-ROM that will cover the years 1970 to the present within the next few weeks. A "Prewar Era" edition, covering the years 1901-1942, is scheduled for the fall.